Legends and Lore / Rule-of-Three Puzzle

[Dannager]

Yesterday I noticed that in the most recent Rule-of-Three article, there was a little picture in the bottom right, at the very end of the article, that appeared to be a fragment of something larger:

It would be easy to assume that this was a formatting error on WotC's part, so at the time I just noted it and mentally filed it away.

Today, however, the following image appeared in the same relative location, but this time in the Legends and Lore column:

This time I was really curious. Checking the image names, I discovered they were, respectively, puzzle_wayne1.jpg and puzzle_reynolds2.jpg.

It remains to be seen what the puzzle will reveal, but it's looking like a picture of a beholder with a URL address written across it in chunks. I've already checked various other permutations of the image names (puzzle_wayne3.jpg, puzzle_reynolds4.jpg, etc.) and nothing is popping up. Keep an eye on future columns, I guess?

Thoughts? New clues?

 

[Aegeri]

Clearly this is a critical success on your perception check! I am most intrigued.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Hmmh, i noticed that picture too. But I mentally connected it with the Question in this article... I mean: 3 stone statues with a metal lamp... that screems beholder or something that turns adventuring parties to stone.

Now I am curious what to see on this URL

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I noticed these too, but I didn't clue in on the puzzle factor. I assumed the first one was a formatting error, and the second one was connected to the article in some way.

This is intriguing.

If I had to guess, this is a marketing gimmick for the launch of some new site. Any guesses as to what product it will be? It's probably not going to be minor like another module or monster supplement. It might be a new campaign setting, a new game entirely, or *gasp* 5th edition itself. Maybe it's a related product - a computer game or something similar.

Interesting.

 

[catsclaw227]

Yea, I picked up on this too. I just thought that they improperly sized/cropped the image in photoshop or it was cropped by some css by accident. I didn't bother trying to save as.. or anything to see if the image was acutally bigger.

 

[Incenjucar]

I would assume that pieces 3 and 4 will use different developers' names.

 

[mudbunny]

Hmmm...

Wonders if he can get info through his contacts

 

[Dannager]

If I had to guess, this is a marketing gimmick for the launch of some new site. Any guesses as to what product it will be? It's probably not going to be minor like another module or monster supplement. It might be a new campaign setting, a new game entirely, or *gasp* 5th edition itself. Maybe it's a related product - a computer game or something similar.

This seems like sort of a small potatoes puzzle for the launch of a major product, but we'll see if it leads to something bigger. The x?x= part of the URL address makes me believe that this won't reveal a new domain name (of the sort that might be identified with a new major product) but rather probably just a page within WotC's website. We'll see!

If anyone comes across new images, please do link them in here! I wouldn't expect another one until we see another column come out, but you never know.

 

[IanB]

I would assume that pieces 3 and 4 will use different developers' names.

Wayne Reynolds is an artist, not a developer - so if we want to be boring, the reason they're named that way is just because he did the art, if we want to put our conspiracy hats on, maybe it is teasing us about some game art-related site/product.

 

[ppaladin123]

These are definitely pieces of the picture WAR did for the cover of the canceled Class Compendium. Maybe that is a clue? It'll probably just be a link to a high quality jpg of this picture, or to a collection of all the art work that was commissioned for the book.